Tag: a prepper

This is the first in the recycle and reuse series. While I don’t think I will have very many used tires to figure out what to do with them in a prepper’s way, there are things that can be done with them.

When I was a kid, sometimes grandpa would have to replace a tractor tire. He gave us one of the tires which mom and dad promptly filled with playground sand. We loved that thing! I think we spend an entire summer in that thing. Another time my uncles took an old tire and make a tire swing. We played on that almost as much as we played in the sandbox years before. That is until we found spiders in the swing. All we had to do was sit there and get bit. That was it. We didn’t play in it any more. Some more years later, when we lived in Minnesota, my mother used a few old tires, as did many other people, as a planter. Some people used them for growing tomatoes and other easy to grow in pots vegetables. Others just for flowers.

Then some years later there was a long discussion in the media about the problems associated with the chemicals used to make tires and that we shouldn’t be using them for growing vegetables. I never forgot that. I didn’t use any old tires for planters or in any location where they children might play. I figured if arsenic in the wood decking would be absorbed by little feet, it was possible that children shouldn’t be playing with them either. You might feel differently, but check for updated facts first. If you find anything interesting, please post a comment!!

All that being said, there are sill many uses for old tires. This website offers quite a few suggestions everything from retaining walls to bumpers in the garage to prevent car scrapes on the walls.

Proper prepping means thinking about organization and what it means to a prepper. Becoming organized is something you can do for no cost. Everyone can organize their preps, especially a beginning prepper. As a beginning prepper, your organization task is much easier than someone who has just been stuffing their things in a room or garage for the last 15 years. If you have read “Getting Started: A Primer Series for New Preppers” and have done those things, then you know you have stuff to organize.

If your food preps are not sorted, labeled and dated, you will not be able to use your supply in the order in which it ages out. It is important to use the oldest foods first to prevent waste or illness. Store food supplies in dry, cool, dark areas. I can’t say how many times preppers go to a lot of work to prepare and save food items then store it in inappropriate places or in rooms with sunlight. Many of those prepping efforts are wasted.

People don’t think about clothing and sewing supplies as perishable.

They are. Fabric will rot over time if exposed to air. It gets moldy and moths and dust mites get in it. Thread decays and weakens. Test thread by wrapping around a finger on each hand and pull it with a snap. The easier it breaks the more rotted it is. Elastic also gives out over time. It is possible to save the products in much the same manners as food items by vacuum sealing plastic bags.

The same goes for almost everything else you will be setting aside as preps. Pay attention to how you store them. Nothing lasts forever.

Organizing and planning how and where you will store your items will save you years of trouble and heartache.

Recent articles about climate change effecting certain regions makes one wonder if they should be considering how to change their preps accordingly. People in regions that formerly only had to worry about hunkering down might now have to consider evacuation due to fire, flood or hurricane. Other people may be considering what to do if the drought from the last two years becomes persistent causing a severe problem for home food production. Certainly these topics are worth considering. In some cases, people will have to adapt.